A great deal is written and said about divisions in the legal profession - on the results of increased specialisation, the disparities in rewards, and the questions of public policy that generate discord.

While such differences are real and worthy of note, this week’s London Legal Walk showed that the legal profession is still capable of coming together as a community - mixing collective endeavour with a celebration. The Gazette was proud to be the event’s media sponsor.

Strolling or running to support the Walk’s organiser, The London Legal Support Trust, were solicitors, barristers, legal executives, paralegals, the judiciary, secretaries, clerks, finance and HR professionals, and the attorney general. The £525,000-plus raised for the Trust by over 6,000 walkers to support the capital’s advice agencies and Citizens Advice bureaux is much needed, and will be well spent.

But just as important, this was also a show of support for the cause the trust represents - the principle of access to justice ‘available to everyone, regardless of their financial situation’. (It hardly needs saying that the message has a special resonance this year.)

Those walking or running to make that point did not need to suppress their differences. Indeed, it is the fact that the profession has its full diversity on display that gives the walk, now an established part of the legal calendar, much of its impact.